so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and finally got my HF rig sorted out (icom 7300, picked it up used) and now im staring at my backyard trying to figure out what to put up first. the lot is maybe 80x120 feet, got a few trees i could use for end supports. i keep going back and forth between just throwing up a simple dipole for 40m since thats where a lot of the activity seems to be, or going with a vertical since i keep reading that they have lower takeoff angles for dx.

the thing is i also have pretty wet clay soil which i heard is actually good for a vertical ground plane? but running 16 or 32 radials sounds like a LOT of work. a dipole i could probably do in an afternoon. anyway im not trying to work serious dx right away, mostly just want to get on the air and make contacts. what would you guys do in my situation

Honestly for your first antenna just throw up the dipole and be done with it. You can spend months agonizing over this stuff and not have any antenna at all. An inverted-V off a central support works great if you can get the apex up 30-35 feet, and yeah 40m is where you want to be for your first few months of HF, lot of activity day and night.

The vertical low-angle argument is real but it only matters if you're actually chasing DX consistently and know what you're doing. For making contacts and learning the band a dipole is just fine. Clay soil is good for a vertical but you're right that the radial system is a whole project on its own. Get the dipole up, work some stations, then decide if you want to go down the vertical rabbit hole later.

went through exactly this same debate last year lol. ended up doing the dipole first and honestly dont regret it at all. mine is up about 28 feet as an inverted-v and i work stations all over north america on 40m no problem, even got a few europeans in the evenings when conditions are decent. the vertical can wait, radials are a pain especially if you have a nice lawn your wife/husband cares about